1578

Censorship within South Africa has served to (internally)isolate South African academics from life around them.Both forms of isolation and the consequent academic

impoverishment frustrate rather than facilitate intellectualand social progress, and are thus antithetical to the conceptof academic freedom. The viewpoint espoused by liberaluniversities is that freedom of speech and academic freedomare important, even in their incompletely fulfilled states,since South African universities are neither the cause of, norperpetuators of, injustice in our society. Indeed quite theconverse applies since they encourage and allow dissensionagainst such injustices. This view calls for the protection ofeven imperfect academic freedom to enable universities tocontribute to the reasoned dialogue required to develop anew, more just, and peaceful society in which universitiescan continue to carry out their universal function of

advancing knowledge.An alternative view, expressed by some who continue to

advocate academic boycotts, is that the so-called universalfunction is more Eurocentric than universal, that even thecentral knowledge and truth seeking work of universities isnot neutral, and that its protection by academic freedomhelps to perpetuate racism and oppression by: (a)reproducing forms of power relations that reinforce elitistdominance in society, (b) suppressing the collective will ofthe people, and (c) frustrating progress towards theelimination of an illegitimate government and its

replacement by a democratically elected leadership.Opponents of freedom of speech and proponents ofacademic boycott in such a context justify their stand asappropriate political strategies which, by contributing to theisolation of South Africa, could facilitate the removal of anunjust regime and lead to greater academic and otherfreedoms in the future. Crucial to this notion has been thetime anticipated for such change to occur. The time framehas already been so long that many individuals and

organisations, including the African National Congress, areopenly expressing concern for the now obvious adverseeffects on a whole generation of schoolchildren of the slogan"liberation now, education later". This course of events,which has contributed to a generation inculcated with aculture of violence, has seriously undermined both theusefulness and the morality of school boycotts and otherrestrictions on freedom of speech and academic interchange.

The road ahead

Persistence in trying to view the experiences of othersonly through the prism of our own life experiences will notsuffice. This applies both within nations and betweennations. Empathy, and a willingness to communicate atmore than a mere superficial level, are prerequisites tounderstanding the deep cultural, economic, and ideologicalgaps that separate opposing groups, and to developing themutually enriching and desperately needed dialogue that isessential for peaceful progress into the future. The "politicsof protest" is becoming obsolete and must be replaced by the"politics of transformation". By this means the adverseeffects of obstructing academic freedom and of totalacademic boycott are already being acknowledged, and it isbeing conceded that even selective boycott poses manyproblems. As a result some who previously proposedacademic boycott are now retracting7 and the morallyjustifiable status of selective support8 is gainingrecognition.9-11 I hope that those who still believe that

obstructing academic freedom is a necessary part of the

struggle will soon also move away from this

counterproductive and self-defeating stand and contributeto a momentum for peaceful progress. Building a new SouthAfrica will demand a pattern of thought and action thattranscends the rhetoric of protest.

REFERENCES

1. The open universities in South Africa and academic freedom 1957-1974.Published on behalf of the Academic Freedom Committees of the

University of Cape Town and the University of the Witwatersrand.Cape Town: Juta.

2. Shils E. The academic ethos. In: van der Merwe H, Welsh D, eds. Thefuture of the university in South Africa. Cape Town: David Phillip,1977: 5-22.

3. Open universities in South Africa. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand

University Press, 1957.4. File J, van den Heever A, Saunders SJ. Towards the day of hard choices.

Nature 1989; 341: 96-98.5. Steele S. The recolouring of campus life. Harper’s Magazine, February

1989: 47-55.6. Welsh D, Savage M. The university in divided societies: the case of South

Africa. In: van der Merwe H, Welsh D, eds. The future of theuniversity of Southern Africa. Cape Town: David Phillip, 1977:130-47.

7. NAMDA and the academic boycott of South Africa. Special Bull Jan 2,1989.

8. Benatar SR. An alternative to academic boycott. Nature 1990; 343:505-06.

9. Apartheid medicine: health and human rights in South Africa. A report tothe American Association for the Advancement of Science, AmericaPsychiatric Association, American Public Health Association, Instituteof Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. AAAS Publ 1990(publication number 90-09S).

10. Crawshaw R. Academic sanction. JAMA 1989; 262: 1499-503.11. Henderson G. Rethinking the presence of American scholars in China.

JAMA 1990; 263: 992-93.

From The Lancet

Medical electors

Some serious and some jocose objections have been raised byseveral of our literary and political contemporaries to the coursewhich we have adopted in applying what is called a medical test toCaptain Grosvenor, one of the candidates for the politicalrepresentation of Westminster. These objections, however ably andamusingly urged, have failed to satisfy us that we should be justifiedin allowing to pass unchallenged his claims to represent a boroughwhich includes, perhaps, a greater number of medical electors thanany other borough in the country. One of the most importantquestions which can arise in the mind of an elector, when calledupon to exercise his right of voting for a parliamentaryrepresentative, is involved in the consideration of the fitness of thatcandidate to express opinions upon matters of imperial interest, andon which the elector has definite views. If it were true that theconnexion of the Grosvenor family with a system of organizedmedical imposture involved only private interests, or related only tomatters of scientific importance, it would, we agree, be ill-judgedand improper to consider that connexion as being of moment indeciding a purely political issue. We might indeed, individually,hold a low opinion of the intelligence of a person who was deludedby the transparent follies of the imposition which is involved in theglobulistic practice of infmitesimalism in medicine. But howevermeanly we might think of his powers of mind and his capacity forforming a judgment, we should be well disposed to treat theseindividual follies as undeserving of any serious or public notice. Foraught we know, there may be believers in perpetual motion amongstthe working legislators of the House of Commons, and anenthusiastic study of the means of squaring a circle may not beincompatible with the perfect fulfilment of official duties.

(24 June 1865)